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Unafraid to voice out her support for minority groups 

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Unafraid to voice out her support for minority groups 

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Unafraid to voice her support for minority groups, Sabrina publicly aligns her artistry with inclusivity and is supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. While performing “Tears” at the 2025 VMAs, she featured drag queens onstage and intentionally gave them the spotlight, transforming the performance into a celebration of queer visibility despite ongoing cultural and political debates surrounding drag representation. By foregrounding drag performers rather than using them as mere aesthetic accessories, Sabrina positioned herself not only as an ally but as an artist willing to leverage mainstream platforms to uplift marginalised communities.

This act reinforces her image as socially conscious, playful, yet principled and unafraid to challenge conservative expectations placed upon young female pop stars. This is in line with her public image of being unabashedly herself- a trait of hers that her fans adore dearly.

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Sabrina Carpenter Performs "Tears" | 2025 Video Music Awards

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Drag queens and protest signs at her performance of 'Tears'

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Drag queens and protest signs at her performance of 'Tears'

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Sassy and humourous personality since young

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Sassy and humourous personality since young

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A viral meme showcasing young Sabrina Carpenter humorously claiming that she “went to school for communication with pets” and possesses the ability to “speak to cats”. Videos like this exemplify her playful, charismatic and tongue-in-cheek sense of humour that contributes greatly to her public persona and star image.

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Listen, Sabrina Carpenter was really onto something… #sabrinacarpenter #nonsense #meme 

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@consequence
Listen, Sabrina Carpenter was really onto something… #sabrinacarpenter #nonsense #meme
♬ original sound - consequence

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Sabrina Carpenter's lyrics are often seen as a cultural marker of a wider phenomenon: young women’s increasing withdrawal from dating and committed relationships.

Her lyrics often explore romance, emotional labour, and self-preservation in contemporary dating culture. Many fans relate to and enjoy her music, as many young women today are increasingly cynical toward modern relationships, for reasons such as emotional burnout, gendered power imbalances and fears of vulnerability.

Sabrina's music resonates with many- not because she rejects love outright, but because she frames intimacy as something where self-respect and emotional boundaries are paramount. Yet, it is okay to be vulnerable and to make mistakes.

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Although Sabrina Carpenter has only achieved mainstream stardom in recent years, she has been a star for a considerable time.

In 2011, Sabrina landed her first acting role at age 11, appearing on an episode of Law & Order: SVU. Her breakthrough came at the age of 14, through her role as Maya Hart in the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World.

Having entered the entertainment industry as a child performer, Sabrina's identity as a star has been forged and honed over the years: from Disney child star to a sex-positive singer.

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Time Magazine placed Sabrina as the cover girl for 'The World's Most Influential Rising Stars' in 2024

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Time Magazine placed Sabrina as the cover girl for 'The World's Most Influential Rising Stars' in 2024

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Sabrina Carpenter on Instagram: "Thank you @time for having me on your cover! 

thank you @xtina for your generous words. I will forever be in awe of you!! ♥️and thank you @lucyfeld for splitting the chocolate mousse with me and being so easy to talk to"

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2M likes, 2,942 comments - sabrinacarpenter on October 2, 2024: "Thank you @time for having me on your cover! 

thank you @xtina for your generous words. I will forever be in awe of you!! ♥️and thank you @lucyfeld for splitting the chocolate mousse with me and being so easy to talk to". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sabrina Carpenter (@sabrinacarpenter)

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Sabrina's performance with Taylor Swift during the ERAS tour

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Sabrina's performance with Taylor Swift during the ERAS tour

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Sabrina was chosen to be Taylor Swift's guest on the Eras Tour in 2023, which functioned as a major symbolic moment in her music career. Performing alongside one of the most powerful figures in global pop culture marked Sabrina as a rising elite pop artist.

In star theory, this collaboration served as a form of symbolic endorsement and cultural consecration. Taylor Swift bringing Sabrina on tour with her signalled industry acceptance and boosted her cultural capital among the masses. It also aligned Sabrina with Taylor's brand of confessional femininity, female solidarity, and narrative-driven pop, reinforcing her image as a witty, self-aware, emotionally candid artist who resonates with women worldwide.

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Sabrina Carpenter on Instagram: "9 year old Sabrina singing white horse would never see this shit coming!
i love you so so so dearly taylor. always have always will. 

thank you Sydney for making me feel so welcome!! 
See you tonight💌"

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4M likes, 15K comments - sabrinacarpenter on February 23, 2024: "9 year old Sabrina singing white horse would never see this shit coming!
i love you so so so dearly taylor. always have always will. 

thank you Sydney for making me feel so welcome!! 
See you tonight💌". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sabrina Carpenter (@sabrinacarpenter)

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2025: Sabrina's Latest Album 'Man's Best Friend'

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2025: Sabrina's Latest Album 'Man's Best Friend'

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alot of buzz abt the album cover. she thinks of the album as the humanness of being in control n the lack thereof control when one is in a rs. to not take things too seriously.

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Tabloid coverage of Sabrina Carpenter’s dating history has been rampant in recent years, contributing to her star image and reinforcing both the relational and contested dimensions of her celebrity persona.

Romantic gossip also generates parasocial proximity, where fans feel privy to Sabrina's life not merely through her lyrics but through tabloid discourse that constructs intimacy and accessibility to her. When her relationship narratives appear to parallel her lyrical themes of heartbreak and jealousy, fans feel as though they know Sabrina personally. In this sense, tabloids act as secondary texts that validate the emotional narratives embedded in her music.

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Reviewing All the Exes Sabrina Carpenter Name-Drops in “Go Go Juice”

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SABRINA CARPENTER Wins BEST POP VOCAL ALBUM For 'SHORT N' SWEET' at 2025 GRAMMYs

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SABRINA CARPENTER Wins BEST POP VOCAL ALBUM For 'SHORT N' SWEET' at 2025 GRAMMYs

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2025 was the first year that Sabrina won Grammy awards. She went home with 2 awards, 13 years after she released her first single in 2012. Winning 2 Grammys was a clear indicator of Sabrina having made it in the mainstream music industry.

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SABRINA CARPENTER Wins BEST POP VOCAL ALBUM For 'SHORT N' SWEET' | 2025 GRAMMYs Acceptance Speech

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Sabrina's star image and consistent style

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Sabrina's star image and consistent style

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Sabrina has a rather deliberate aesthetic and style coherence; her style is described as flirtatious baby-doll silhouettes - an image that fuses innocence and glamour.

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Lots of glitter and tiny corset tops/ bodysuits

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Interview about 'Man's Best Friend' album

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Interview about 'Man's Best Friend' album

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Sabrina being unabashedly herself. She is able to express herself truthfully despite the criticisms that have been thrown at her about her sexuality and the way she presents herself.

She mentioned that she has been dealing with hate comments since she was a kid. She mentioned she posted YouTube singing covers since she was 9 and has received hate comments since then.

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Extended interview: Sabrina Carpenter on "Man's Best Friend" and more

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The importance of perceived authenticity of celebrities

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The importance of perceived authenticity of celebrities

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Sabrina Carpenter has been in the limelight since she was a child. There are many various media that document her growth as a celebrity and also as a young to mature woman. Through media clips, audiences can perceive a steady continuity in her personality, which strengthens the notion of Sabrina as an artist who maintains an authentic sense of self, despite her increasing fame. This perceived genuineness allows fans to connect with her on a more personal level, when her public image feels sincere rather than overly curated or artificial. In a celebrity culture often criticised for its performative authenticity, Sabrina’s ability to appear true to herself resonates strongly with audiences who value relatability and honesty in the stars they admire.

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Being vulnerable with fans during concert

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Being vulnerable with fans during concert

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sabrina carpenter in manila - decode (intro) beautiful words about healing 🥺 thank you for the most wonderful night @Sabrina Carpenter ❤️ #EmailsICantSendMNL #SabrinaCarpenterMNL #EICSManila #sabrinacarpenter #emailsicantsend #fyp 

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@loafsie
sabrina carpenter in manila - decode (intro) beautiful words about healing 🥺 thank you for the most wonderful night @Sabrina Carpenter ❤️ #EmailsICantSendMNL #SabrinaCarpenterMNL #EICSManila #sabrinacarpenter #emailsicantsend #fyp
♬ original sound - marnie ✴︎ - marnie ✴︎

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Comments by her fans about their love for Sabrina's relatability and authenticity

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Sabrina Carpenter and Rowan Blanchard in 'Girl Meets World' in 2016

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Sabrina Carpenter and Rowan Blanchard in 'Girl Meets World' in 2016

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Girl Meets World firmly cemented Sabrina Carpenter as a Disney Channel star, the beginning of her stardom journey.

Sabrina told Teen Vogue in 2020, “That was my world and that was my everything, and I was so proud to be a part of it and everything that it stood for”.

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Fans are drawn to the perceived realness of Sabrina Carpenter: the way she navigates vulnerability, humour, and sensuality with apparent ease.

Sabrina's multifaceted personality reflects what Dyer (1979) calls the “contradictory coherence” of a star image, where seemingly opposing qualities coexist to create depth and relatability. Sabrina's willingness to be emotionally open while also embracing wit and her sexuality allows her to transcend the one-dimensional archetype of the politically correct “Disney girl”, embracing a maturing public identity.

Ultimately, her star image embodies both authenticity and transformation, traits that are vital to gain and sustain audience engagement in contemporary celebrity culture.

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she is so unserious lmaoo i love herrr <333 @Sabrina Carpenter #sabrinacarpenter #spotify #mansbestfriend 

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@glimpseofashley
she is so unserious lmaoo i love herrr <333 @Sabrina Carpenter #sabrinacarpenter #spotify #mansbestfriend
♬ original sound - ashley *ੈ✩‧₊˚

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Sabrina without makeup and doing a funny relatable TikTok

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Sabrina without makeup and doing a funny relatable TikTok

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@sabrinacarpenter

♬ original sound - ⸆⸉

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By doing a casual 'Get ready with me' video, an everyday act like applying makeup allows Sabrina to bridge the distance between celebrity status and her fans, reinforcing a relatable, down-to-earth image in spite of being a star.

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'Emails i can't send' released in 2022, is Sabrina's fifth studio album, often widely regarded as her breakthrough album, where she gained mainstream recognition as a pop artist. While not an explosive blockbuster, this album debuted at number 23 on the US Billboard 200, which at the time was her highest charting album.

This album, being her fifth, exemplified that Sabrina's seemingly “overnight” success was in fact built on years of less celebrated hard work. Crucially, this success highlighted Sabrina's slow-burn rise in an era of rapid TikTok-driven stardom for upcoming artists. Rather than achieving fame through a single viral moment, Sabrina spent years refining her craft, building her audience, and developing her artistic voice. Sabrina herself has described her journey as a “slow rise”, creating a narrative that she is a hardworking and authentic star whose success feels deserved and earned rather than accidental.

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Sabrina Carpenter accepted the Variety Hitmakers Rising Artist Award presented by H&M in 2023 and used the popular fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare” as a metaphor for her 'slow rise' in the music industry. She expressed her gratitude for being able to experience a steady rise to fame and is excited to continue growing in the industry.

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Sabrina Carpenter accepted the Variety Hitmakers Rising Artist Award presented by H&M on Saturday, using the popular fable of "The Tortoise and the Hare" as a metaphor for her rise in the music industry.

"Something that my mom always said to me as a little girl that really annoyed me was that I am the tortoise, and if you guys know the tortoise and the hare thing, that pissed me off a lot because, you know, throughout my life, [I was] being told, 'Sabrina, you're the tortoise, just chill,' like 'it's okay, you're the tortoise, just slow down, it's going to be okay,'" Carpenter said. "In moments of frustration and confusion it can feel like a letdown, but it turns out it's actually a very good thing. And I've really loved getting to know the mindset of a slow rise.

"Knowing that I have a lot to look forward to and no matter how much I experience and how much I have under my belt, I'll always have something to learn. That's kind of where I'm at right now, I'm just learning," continued Carpenter. "And I'm very grateful."

Carpenter, who is coming off a banner year, was presented the award by "Issues" singer-songwriter Julia Michaels. She described Carpenter as one of her friends, longtime collaborator and inspiration.

"I've had the honor of getting to know and write songs with this incredible artist over the last few years. I'm absolutely in awe of her lyricism and her incredible voice and her extremely quick-witted sense of humor. It's top-notch. And her completely unmatched work ethic," said Michaels in her introduction of Carpenter. "She's one of the most intelligent women that I know and I love her ability to turn anything good and bad into a song."

Carpenter then took to the stage to accept her award.

"It's so scary up here, oh my god, the lights are bright, it's hot," Carpenter joked.

She then addressed Michaels with, "I just want to thank you because you've taught me so much. And I'm so inspired by you and I love you so much."

Carpenter released her fifth studio album "Emails I Can't Send" last year, and it became her highest-charting to date, spawning the single "Nonsense" that quickly earned its spot as a fan favorite. She followed the 2022 release with a deluxe edition earlier this year, and embarked on an 80-date international headlining tour to support the project. Most recently, she's been the opening act on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, warming up for the singer in South America and Australia where she'll rejoin the trek in February.

Carpenter, who starred in "Girl Meets World" from 2014 to 2017, has long since shed the Disney image she cultivated over the years. She worked with a tight-knit team on "Emails," including songwriter Julia Michaels, for an album that marries pop prowess with R&B intonations.

Her latest single, "Feather," courted controversy after its music video release in October, when a Brooklyn Catholic Church where she filmed the clip said they had to re-bless the establishment and remove a priest due to the blood-splattered content. "We got approval in advance," she told Variety, "and Jesus was a carpenter."

Last month, she threw her hat into the holiday ring with the release of her "Fruitcake" EP, a Christmas project that featured a festive rework of "Nonsense," among others. She also shared that she plans to record new music for potential release next year.

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Sabrina Carpenter Talks Getting Into the 'Mindset of a Slow Rise': 'I Am the Tortoise'

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Watch Sabrina Carpenter be honored with the Variety Hitmakers Rising Star award, presented by H&M.

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Sabrina customises the outro for 'Nonsense' at every city of her tour

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Sabrina customises the outro for 'Nonsense' at every city of her tour

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One of Sabrina's biggest hits, “Nonsense” shows off her playful personality and creates anticipation among her fans - she had a tradition of changing the outroat every show to fit the city she’s performing in.

For example, during her tour in Singapore, she ended her performance of 'Nonsense' with 'I don't sing-a-poor (Singapore), I sing amazing'.

These cheeky, improvised lines make every performance feel personal and fun, helping fans feel connected to her and reinforcing her image as a witty, charismatic pop star.

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Sabrina Carpenter’s Nonsense outro in Singapore 🩷 Video by @c #SabrinaCarpenter #nonsenseoutro #emailsicantsendtour #EICSTourSingapore #Singapore #fypシ #foryoupage #nonsense 

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@celebsmedia
Sabrina Carpenter’s Nonsense outro in Singapore 🩷 Video by @c #SabrinaCarpenter #nonsenseoutro #emailsicantsendtour #EICSTourSingapore #Singapore #fypシ #foryoupage #nonsense
♬ original sound - celebs media

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A compilation of some of Sabrina's 'Nonsense' outros

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A compilation of some of Sabrina's 'Nonsense' outros

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Her customised outros have been very popular among her fans, something that they look forward to hearing every time Sabrina performs 'Nonsense'.

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Ranking the most HOTTEST Nonsense Outros by @sabrinacarpenter 🔥😈 #sabrinacarpenter #nonsense #nonsenseoutro #livemusic #concert

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@getyourquiz
Ranking the most HOTTEST Nonsense Outros by @sabrinacarpenter 🔥😈 #sabrinacarpenter #nonsense #nonsenseoutro #livemusic #concert
♬ Originalton - GetYourQuiz - GetYourQuiz

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Sabrina's style has been used as inspiration for petite girls

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Sabrina's style has been used as inspiration for petite girls

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7 Petite Style Tips I’ve Learned from Sabrina Carpenter

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I went through more than 200 Getty pictures and Instagram photos of Sabrina Carpenter and found seven style tips for petites, from mini dresses to long coats.

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How Sabrina Carpenter Became America’s Newest Pop Superstar

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How Sabrina Carpenter Became America’s Newest Pop Superstar

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From 2022 to 2025, Sabrina Carpenter's public image shifted from ex-Disney child star to mainstream Gen-Z pop star through a sharp reinvention. Her album 'Emails I Can’t Send' introduced diaristic songwriting, witty humour and sexually confident pop, with TikTok boosting “Nonsense” and turning her comedic outros into a cultural signature for her fans. Touring and festival performances cemented her coquettish, authentic stage persona, while viral fashion pieces: mini-dresses, 60s bombshell silhouettes, positioned her as both nostalgic icon and playful disruptor of the male gaze.

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In the summer of 1982, a rocker from Indiana was finally breaking on the charts after years of trying anything for a hit. Born John Mellencamp, he marketed himself, reluctantly, under his manager's preferred sobriquet, John Cougar. After about three years of singles that meandered around the middle of Billboard's Hot 100, the hit that finally got Cougar into the Top 10, " Hurts So Good," was undeniable: both a heartland rocker and a danceable bop at the same time. With its center-of-the-bullseye melody and cheeky S&M-adjacent lyrics, "Hurts So Good" had the makings of a Song of the Summer. But even as Cougar's LP American Fool hit No. 1 on the album chart, in July '82 "Hurts" got stuck at No. 2 on the Hot 100, behind even bigger hot-weather hits by Survivor and the Human League.

And then ... the oddest thing: While "Hurts" was still in the Top 10, a second John Cougar hit came roaring in beside it, then soared above it: a little ditty called " Jack and Diane." This was a quirkier tune, with pensive lyrics about the passage of time and a synthesized clap that recurred like a sample; it sounded like country music crossed with New Wave synthpop. At the beginning of the summer, "Jack and Diane" would have seemed an odd choice for a big hit (Mellencamp fought his own label to put it out as a single). At the summer's end, it took Mellencamp to No. 1 for the first (and only) time in his career. America had been rooting all season for their new favorite pop star to top the charts, and he met his destiny-but with a different song.

This chart pattern popped into my head this week as the Hot 100 was overtaken by Sabrina Carpenter, America's shiny new (but really long-striving) purveyor of pop jams. Since the spring, everyone you know has been swooning for Carpenter's throwback early-'80s-style dance bop " Espresso," the song that coined the memeable phrase " That's that me espresso," as well as claims that you might work late if you're a singerrr. Many declared it 2024's Song of the Summer even before summer had begun. Here's the problem: To date, "Espresso" has peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100. To be the actual Song of the Summer, a song has to go to No. 1. (And I'm just gonna stop you right there before you give me that weak forget-the-charts rejoinder "Well, it's my Song of the Summer," because that's not how this sport is played.)

And now ... the oddest thing: While "Espresso" was still lodged in the Top Five, Carpenter dropped a follow-up-a quirkier, moodier ditty, "Please Please Please," that's a kind of hybrid of country and synthpop. Last week "Please" crashed onto the chart at No. 2, already hotter than "Espresso." This week, "Please" is No. 1, while "Espresso" cools to No. 4. Sabrina Carpenter has done the thing everybody wanted her to do, but not with the song everybody wanted her to do it with.

Does it matter? Are we Team Carpenter, or Team "Espresso"? Carpenter's near-takeover of the Top Five is nothing but good for her career-she clearly has momentum on her side, like Mellencamp in the summer of '82. Besides the chart-pattern similarities, the other reason I invoke Mellencamp is legacy: "Jack and Diane" is now widely regarded as his song for the ages, in spite, or probably because, of its quirks. Its lifetime Spotify streams are much higher than those for "Hurts So Good." "Hurts" is a fine example of an uptempo twangy-rock mode that Mellencamp hit with multiple times over the next decade, whereas nothing else in his long roster of hits sounds quite like "Jack and Diane." As for Sabrina Carpenter, I can't tell yet if "Please Please Please" will one day be regarded as her canonical bop, but it might. She will probably have several more hits that sound like "Espresso," but I'll be shocked if she ever generates another single with the oddball charm of her latest. As with "Jack and Diane," the quirkiness is the point.

Indeed, 25-year-old Carpenter has long been building a brand as the lovable kook who delivers the goods. She has an appealing, cooing voice and cowrites all of her material, but the root of her stardom is in her coy persona. In her music videos and onstage performances-including a run of opening-slot dates on Taylor Swift's "Eras" tour-she projects a sex-positive insouciance that's both heartfelt and in on the joke. Standing all of five-foot-zero, the former actress (she didn't play the lead) has titled her forthcoming album Short n' Sweet. In her "Espresso" video, she is arrested for credit-card fraud, then gets bailed out of jail in the follow-up "Please Please Please" clip, still wearing an untroubled smile. She titled one of her radio bops " Nonsense" and comes up with new location-specific puns for its outro each time she sings it live; some favorites include "I don't Singapore, I sing amazing," and "Tulsa backwards is actually 'a slut.' " She casually drops curses in songs-"My give-a-fucks are on vacation" or "Your signals are mixed, you act like a bitch" or "Don't embarrass me, motherfucker"-in such a cheerful, chirpy way, they're almost wholesome.

She even survived a midcareer mini scandal by basically swanning past it. If you've been reading this Slate No. 1 hits series for the past few years and the name Sabrina Carpenter rings a bell, that might be because she was a spicy footnote to Olivia Rodrigo's 2021 chart-topping breakthrough ballad " Drivers License." Carpenter was () the "blond girl" who stole the affections of one Joshua Bassett, Rodrigo's former boyfriend and co-star on the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. In other words, Carpenter was the fuel for Rodrigo's wronged-woman rage and subsequent heartbreak anthem. This Gen-Z reality soap opera-which prompted a couple rounds of answer records from Bassett and Carpenter and some predictable side-choosing by the online hordes-could have utterly consumed Carpenter's career. And she didn't allow it, letting her sharp answer record, " Skin," speak for itself ("You've been telling your side, so I'll be telling mine ... Even you can't get under my skin if I don't let you in") and sneaking in sly Bassett references on her 2022 album Emails I Can't Send (" Because I Liked a Boy" ) and in concert (" This song is not about Joshua Bassett"). Weirdly, the love triangle has been good for everybody not named Bassett-certainly for Rodrigo, but even (especially) for Carpenter. As a certain obnoxious rapper once said, an unasked-for scandal can make a gal famous, and l'affaire Rodrigo only boosted Carpenter's stock, branding her as unfiltered and unbothered.

Carpenter has earned a measure of goodwill for toiling in celebrity's middle tier for more than a decade. Like Rodrigo-and like numerous pop stars before her, from Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake to Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez-she came up through the kids-TV machine, breaking through in 2014 as one of the stars of the Disney Channel's Girl Meets World. From the jump, she followed the multihyphenate music-plus-screen playbook: Just weeks after the TV show premiered, she dropped a debut single, " Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" (even then, the Sabrina Carpenter brand was sassy), and a full album followed a year later. From 2015's Eyes Wide Open through 2019's Singular: Act II, Carpenter forged an eclectic sound that blended folky confessionals with frothy club-pop. A couple of her tracks topped Billboard's Dance chart, but her albums missed the Top 25 and routinely fell off the Billboard 200 in under a month. All the while, Carpenter tried a bit of everything, including movies-a supporting role in the acclaimed drama The Hate U Give, a star turn in the tiny indie The Short History of the Long Road-and Broadway, where she took over the lead role in Mean Girls just days before the pandemic shut down the show.

Nothing seemed to get Carpenter out of her semi-fame purgatory until Emails I Can't Send, which besides the post-Rodrigo frisson also featured all-around smarter, more chart-savvy tracks. "Nonsense" gave Carpenter her first big radio hit, reaching No. 10 on the Pop Airplay chart in early 2023. A deluxe rerelease of the LP kept it on the album chart more than half the year and generated an even bigger hit with " Feather," a neo-disco bop that got Carpenter into the Top 40 for the first time and went Top Five at radio. "Feather" was most notorious for its bloody music video, a bit of satirical ultraviolence a la Promising Young Woman, Jennifer's Body, or Bottoms, in which scores of mediocre men literally kill each other over their lust for Carpenter. The video codified her knowingly ditsy, devil-may-care persona and even drew condemnation from the Brooklyn Catholic diocese for Carpenter's scenes inside a local church, which ... come to think of it, couldn't have been bad for business.

In short, Carpenter built her profile brick by brick-for all its social-age Zoomer vibes, the explosion in her popularity this year is really an old-fashioned career development story of the bygone Hollywood variety, a tribute to never-say-die persistence. Carpenter kept refining her persona until the stars aligned and the world caught up. What's fascinating about her pair of summer '24 hits is how they reconfigure elements of that persona into something new, or at least novel enough to feel fresh. With "Espresso," the electrofunk bop that my colleague Dan Charnas expertly dissected and historicized for Slate earlier this month, Carpenter (who cowrote the song with producer Julian Bunetta and songwriters Amy Allen and Steph Jones) honed her dance floor pop into a set of TikTok memes waiting to happen. You don't sing a grammatically questionable slogan like "That's that me espresso" unless you know it's going to become a hashtag.

And then there's "Please Please Please," her actual chart-topper, which is something else entirely-yet also perfectly on-brand for her. Building on her previous folk-pop, Carpenter has written a midtempo country ballad that's simultaneously burbly technopop-it's basically both sides of her discography at once. The lyrics, delivered in Carpenter's sweetest coo, are a pleading story song, a gloss on Dolly Parton: "Please, please, please, don't prove I'm right. And please, pleasе, please-don't bring me to tеars when I just did my makeup so nice." Throw in a reference to a hussy named Jolene, and it really would be a Dolly song-except I don't think Parton would implore her man, "I beg you, don't embarrass me, motherfucker."

Carpenter's timing with this approach couldn't be better. "Please" just ejected Post Malone and Morgan Wallen's country rave-up " I Had Some Help" from No. 1 and comes just three months after Beyoncé's two-step chart-topper " Texas Hold 'Em." These are all country records reimagined for the streaming era, and "Please" is the most hybridized, pairing gentle acoustic-guitar arpeggios with a fuzzy synth filigree that keeps cycling through the song like John Cougar's "Jack and Diane" hook. It's a truly strange record, not so much genreless as multigenre, convincingly twangy and credibly electropop at the same time. In addition to Carpenter and her frequent co-writer Amy Allen, credit for the record's unique sound must go to its other songwriter and producer-none other than Jack Antonoff, king of the moody synth burble, the man who's been helming hits for Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Lorde, and St. Vincent and is now sprinkling his pixie dust on Sabrina Carpenter. That's the surest sign of how her profile has risen in the past year.

This higher profile is also evidenced by how easily Carpenter slays the charts now. Remember, prior to last year's "Feather," she hadn't even cracked the Top 40. When "Espresso" arrived this April, it entered the Hot 100 at No. 7 and hasn't left the Top 10 in its entire 10-week chart run. Arguably, the more immediate "Espresso" softened the ground for the oddball "Please Please Please," which debuted at No. 2 alongside "Espresso" at No. 3-making Carpenter, according to Billboard, "the second act overall after the Beatles ... to place two initial top-three hits with no other billed artists in the region simultaneously." (An odd chart record, but long story short: Carpenter is achieving world-class chart berths now.) One week later, "Please" rose to No. 1, largely because the song's streams actually grew after its debut-to 50.9 million, the kind of streaming number Kendrick Lamar's beef records with Drake have been racking up lately.

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In Carpenter's case, those streams were boosted by its music video, whose co-star is Barry Keoghan, Oscar nominee, star, and Irish internet boyfriend. He's currently Carpenter's actual boyfriend, and half a year after we all watched him hump a gravesite for director Emerald Fennell, he is swimming in weirdo-bad-boy cred, which he brings to his role in the clip as a gun-toting thug and Carpenter's jailhouse crush. His presence is a stroke of genius insofar as it gives Carpenter, three years after the Rodrigo-Bassett mishegoss, a new sexy metanarrative. And as any modern pop star from Taylor Swift to Ariana Grande will tell you, in the age of parasocial fandom, the metanarrative is essential.

With the year only half over, 2024 has already gone down as a great one for the Main Pop Girl, with Beyoncé, Swift, Grande, Billie Eilish, and Charli XCX all delivering. (Even the relative failures have been interesting-forget the haters, I like the Dua Lipa album.) In the second half, Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet, due in August, now stands as perhaps the most anticipated LP yet to come-amazing when you consider the aforementioned competition: artists, just a couple of years ago, she was either opening for or aspiring to emulate. Unlike any of those high-profile divas, Carpenter's album will drop with not one but two already coronated hits. Best of all, "Espresso" and "Please Please Please" have the kind of stylistic and genre breadth that screams "career artist"-which Carpenter earned after a decade of putting in the work. Does it make sense that the weirder single is the Hot 100 No. 1? Who cares? Sabrina Carpenter has already won.

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To understand how Sabrina Carpenter got so big, you have to understand her controversies.

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Using her personal relationships as lyrical inspiration

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Using her personal relationships as lyrical inspiration

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Fans value the candour in Sabrina's songwriting, interpreting her lyrics as emotionally relatable and reflective of common and shared romantic experiences. This perceived openness narrows the distance between celebrity and audience, allowing listeners to feel that Carpenter navigates the same vulnerabilities and relationship dynamics as they do.

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Sabrina Carpenter Discusses Using Her Relationships as Inspo for ‘Short n’ Sweet’

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“It’ll probably bite me in the *ss at some point.”

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Lyrics of Sabrina's songs which fans relate to the most

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Lyrics of Sabrina's songs which fans relate to the most

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From the SabrinaCarpenterDisc community on Reddit

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Explore this post and more from the SabrinaCarpenterDisc community

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Sabrina opening up about her relationships

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Sabrina opening up about her relationships

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Sabrina Carpenter Opens Up About Her 'Messy' And 'Fun' Approach To Dating | Fast Facts

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Instagram account just for people to find Sabrina's clothes

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Instagram account just for people to find Sabrina's clothes

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Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

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Sabrina's Rapid Rise to Stardom (2022-2025)

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Sabrina's Rapid Rise to Stardom (2022-2025)